London’s emergency services responded poorly to the July 7 suicide bombings by relying on outdated communications, lacking medical supplies and failing to track thousands of survivors, an official report said on Monday.
The London Assembly’s July 7 review committee said that the most striking failure was the lack of planning to care for thousands of people who survived or were traumatised by the bombings on three underground trains and a bus.
The report revealed that as many as 6 000 people were likely to have been severely psychologically affected by the explosions but that the majority were still not known to the authorities or part of any support network.
This was ”completely unacceptable”, it said.
It added that it was also ”unacceptable” that the emergency services were still unable to communicate by radio when underground, complaining of an over-reliance on the mobile telephone network.
As a result of the communication breakdown, some emergency services personnel at the blast site could not communicate with each other or in some cases even with their control rooms.
The report revealed that radios used by most blue-light emergency services still did not work underground, despite recommendations made 18 years ago in the wake of a fire at the underground station at King’s Cross.
”The plans, systems and processes intended to provide a framework for the response to major incidents in London must be revised and improved,” the report concluded.
”Communications within and between the emergency services did not stand up on July 7,” it said.
”It’s unacceptable that the emergency services, with the exception of the British Transport Police, are still not able to communicate by radio when they are underground,” it said.
The report estimated that at least 1 000 adults and 2 000 of their children were likely to have suffered from post-traumatic stress as a result of the bombing.
A further 3 000 others had been directly affected, it said.
”The majority of them are still not known to the authorities, are not part of any support network of survivors and have been left to fend for themselves,” the committee concluded.
There had been no systematic establishment of survivor reception areas, so many had simply left the scenes without having given their personal details to anyone.
The report added: ”The failure to plan for the care of hundreds of people who are likely to have suffered psychological trauma having survived the July 7 explosions is completely unacceptable.”
A total of 56 people died, including the four Islamic extremist suicide bombers, and more than 700 were injured in four separate blasts on three London underground trains and a bus at the height of rush hour on July 7 last year. — AFP
